76 Comments - God's Country - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:38 am: > Don’t need to worry about no facts or nothin, apparently. - Anonymous - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:38 am: “Everything that we pay and do supports Chicago,” Don’t need to worry about no facts or nothin, apparently - God's Country - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:39 am: Or how to properly post here. My apologies. - Local Person - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:39 am: Favorite part of the article was where they just allowed the false “taker” claim about Chicago to stand. Y’all, if Chicago was it’s own state, Illinois would have declared bankruptcy somewhere in the mid nineties - Cubs in '16 - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:42 am: “Downstate just never seems to get any of the perks or any of the kickbacks.” Coming from a presumably well-educated person that’s just…yikes. - Norseman - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:43 am: Whining is now part of American culture and the rhetorical focus of the MAGAT party. The myth about downstate being shorted due to Chicago is a whine played up to deafening levels by IL MAGAT. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:43 am: What has been comical, for me, these past YEARS? Easy. The central and downstate folks think “Dems” see them as Rubes, but in really… it’s always been the Republicans that fed these Rubes such phony things… Cults are like that… then “Enter Trump” - We’ll see - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:47 am: Richard Irvin’s so confident in his chances he walked in Bourbonnais’ Friendship Festival parade yesterday. /s - hisgirlfriday - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:49 am: Until that NY Times piece, I did not think about how this was shaping up to be the most expensive non-presidential race of all time. In hindsight, it’s kind of crazy to think about all the money that was spent by Ken Griffin on this — all out of egotism and vanity — when even if Richard Irvin didn’t turn out to be a huge disaster of a candidate, the chances of a Republican governor getting elected in Illinois right after Roe v. Wade was struck down were so infinitesimally small. As for LaHood’s comments, doesn’t his district border Missouri? Those remarks seemed out of left field. But at the same time, I do think Darren Bailey’s accent is off-putting (even as someone who has spent most of my life and grew up in Downstate Illinois). That accent does not sound like that of anyone I have ever met from Illinois and I have met plenty of people from Southern Illinois. - Hot Taeks - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:54 am: Everybody here knows that when Richard Irvin loses to a far-right downstate farmer, it will be almost entirely his fault because he’s a terrible candidate who can’t answer simple direct questions. Little to do with JB and the DGA’s meddling. Also lol at LaHood already throwing shade at Bailey. - Anyone Remember - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:55 am: “Everything that we pay and do supports Chicago,” IF she brings that level of analytical competence to work, State Farm has problems. - Larry Bowa Jr. - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:57 am: World class “journalism” from NYT right there, which nicely demonstrates how right wing talking points are laundered and given the sheen of factual accuracy in supposedly liberal media. Pam Page reads on her facebook feed about how downstate is just so victimized by the baddie Dems in Cook Co. stealing all the goodies downstate should be getting. Then NYT just uncritically reprints the baseless claim with zero effort at context or correction. Now to a lot of people, that’s going to look like a fact. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 9:57 am: ===Everybody here knows=== Speak for yourself. Ignoring the financial assistance to educate downstate voters is how folks pretend that first money doesn’t matter then will complain about too much money IN campaigns later when a candidate is outspent. - Sally - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:00 am: Wait until Republicans figure out that after Friday, a pro-life candidate simply can’t win in the suburbs (and maybe exurbs) of Chicago. Thank you Donald Trump and his hand picked Supreme Court members. - Concerned Observer - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:05 am: - Wait until Republicans figure out that after Friday, a pro-life candidate simply can’t win in the suburbs (and maybe exurbs) of Chicago. - Sally, that’s been the case for 25 years or more. If it hadn’t, we’d have had Governor Poshard. - Correcting - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:06 am: You can’t just bully the land mass. You won’t like these trees when they get angry. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:06 am: To the post, So what. Griffin, by any measure, was not trying to help Illinois, Griffin wanted to control Illinois policy. Griffin is never a hero in any aspect from Rauner to Irvin. Here’s my lil travels with Griffin/Rauner/Uihlein; At no point was Rauner helpful to the ILGOP, i mean… in context… Diana Rauner, “the Democrat” was at one point a “Top 7” or so personal donor. In short, Rauner bought the brand, caucuses, everything for *his* own agenda, and Griffin liked that too . Building? Building an actual party? Please. Nope. Now let’s talk Uihlein. When you enlist Proft to push the ugliness of people and society to win mere primaries, how does that help at all? The goal is to win, not win “arguments” for their own sakes. So Griffin? When your agenda is predicated on statewide races run as mayoral grievances, then what exactly do you think will be the win in that argument when losing the primary race… well, … it’s personal, not about any party growing or any caucuses expanding. It was about Pritzker, with municipal angles to hurt. Three rich men… Rauner, Griffin, Uihlein…wanted nothing to do with the ILGOP, they wanted everything to do with trying to win unpopular policies at the cost of actual property and the functioning two party system. - TheInvisibleMan - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:06 am: “And even an admission of ultimate failure…” Is it? Or it is just playing into his and his parties constant victim role, that has to be portrayed to keep the followers believing the ruse. For all his faults, I don’t think Devore is one who will claim election fraud at a loss. But Bailey certainly is. If anything, Devore might be looking for an out to avoid the association. - Quizzical - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:07 am: Maybe we could help McLean County by establishing some kind of large State facility there. Maybe something that would bring thousands of consumers to spend most of the year there. - Amalia - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:07 am: Hey NYT we’re gonna send the Trib to SW New York. You won’t like what you hear from there either. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:09 am: Land doesn’t vote. People vote. Another Rube myth. - Bruce( no not him) - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:09 am: I saw recently that southern Illinois is closer to Nashville than Chicago. The members here know that Chicago is a giver in tax dollars, not a taker. But try to tell anyone south of I-80 that, and they will tell you, “you are wrong.” Somewhere, somehow, that fact needs to be driven into the message from the Dems. Over and over again, with facts and figures. - TheInvisibleMan - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:10 am: “90 percent of the land mass is not real happy” Feelings? Land has feelings now? What about the air? How does the air feel? And water! We can’t forget to take the feelings of water into consideration. - TNR - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:11 am: As a State Farm customer, I shudder at the sight of one of their employees — one with the term “analyst” in her job title, no less — making such a factually ignorant statement. - Hot Taeks - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:13 am: Yeah I guess the question come Wednesday is (as others have alluded to): Will Darren Bailey claim election fraud after losing to Pritzker in the general by 15+ points? - Proud Papa Bear - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:14 am: Wait, Wauconda is now well-to-do? When did that happen? - Moral Victory - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:15 am: That $50MM bronze medal is going to hang heavy. - TheInvisibleMan - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:17 am: >Somewhere, somehow, that fact needs to be driven into the message. People get very mad at me when I keep saying to cut the LGDF. Short of that, you will never ‘convince’ anyone who feels otherwise. They know it’s a lie, it’s precisely why they would get mad if you told them state funding to their town would be cut. When you get the response of “you’re wrong”, that’s not a reaction to the facts, it’s a reaction to the party line that they are immersed in. No amount of facts will ever change someone who adheres to the party line. You aren’t communicating with someone who wants to have an honest discussion. - Simple Simon - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:18 am: I wanna be a geopsychgologist when I grow up and help land masses overcome their fears and complexes. - former southerner - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:19 am: I hope at SF, “security analyst” is a polite euphemism for parking lot guard. If this is a true analyst position, SF HR is dropping the ball badly in hiring the clueless. - Vote Quimby - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:20 am: ==But try to tell anyone south of I-80 that== If you don’t like stereotypes, please don’t use them against others. I live south of that interstate… heck, even south of I-70, and I am aware of the fact that the Chicago region is the engine which drives Illinois. Am I in the minority? Probably… but “anyone” is all-inclusive (and not in a good way in this case). - Frank talks - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:21 am: Pam Page sounds like she’d make a solid McLean County Board candidate with those good ole common sense phrasings. State Farm only the best of the best need apply. - Sally - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:21 am: ==Sally, that’s been the case for 25 years or more.== Maybe for Statewide offices. I was thinking it will also be applicable to pro-life (or should I say ant0choice?) candidates for the General Assembly, those seeking County Offices and maybe even down to School Boards. This will be a HUGE downside of Trumpsters controlling State and Local Republican political operations. A pro-life purity test will further erode the Republican farm team of electable suburban candidates. - Lakefront - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:23 am: == The central and downstate folks think “Dems” see them as Rubes, but in really… it’s always been the Republicans that fed these Rubes such phony things…== Eh, it’s a little of both. Basically any politician north of I-80 sees “downstate” and adjacent regions’ voters as bumpkins. At least in my political lifetime. Might be proving them right with the preferred candidates this cycle though… - Just Me 2 - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:26 am: Last time I checked land doesn’t vote. People do. - Pundent - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:28 am: Richard Irvin may very well be the only candidate that can beat JB Pritzker. But the fact remains that he can’t beat Darren Bailey in a Republican primary in 2022. And if JB Pritzker is meddling in the GOP primary then the same can be said about Dick Uihlein and Donald Trump. - Nearly Normal - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:28 am: Page is just repeating the same false info that most McLean County Republicans believe. Yes, it is safe to say that so many around here are just fine with repeating what they hear or read on social media. Very few take a deep dive into the facts. And if you try to tell them the real facts you are the enemy. - Norseman - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:32 am: === because he’s a terrible candidate who can’t answer simple direct questions === Griffin was trying to make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse. Now the silk purse is all muddy and has no prize. - TJ - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:32 am: Always worth pointing out that Cairo, IL is further south than Richmond, Virginia. Rich hit the nail on the head. Little Egypt absolutely is part of the South. As for the most expensive race outside of POTUS, well..we’ll… that’s what happens when one billionaire goes up against the astroturfed pupped of another billionaire. Things get pricey. Oh, and I’m pretty sure that Bailey has yet another billionaire back him (though not to the same degree as the Griffin/Irvin ticket), so this is still going to be expensive. And His Girl Friday is right. Fire Pritzker has no chance at happening post-Roe’s repeal. The Roberts Court just guaranteed loads of Dem reflections despite economic qualms voters rightfully have. - Annonin' - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:33 am: Perhaps it is time for another edition of “Ask Avery” Today’s question comes from KennieG Avery the NYT calls Wauconda “well to do” You and I have both seen well to do, That town ain’t right” Avery responds you are 100% Keeewreck Mr. KennieG and thanks for the sun dresses. KennieG also asks about the dopey comments from the ConfessCongressman’s Son and wonders why he continues to open his mouth Avery responds she too is baffled and wonders who the family does not send him back to Vegas to fight corruption. Hopefully we will hear back from Avery post election - TJ - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:34 am: Pardon the autocorrect typos. - West Side the Best Side - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:35 am: Almost switched from State Farm with the Aaron Rodgers vax issues. (The owning the Bears thing was just Cheesehead talk.) Now with that statement from an analyst that has convinced me that company is not a good neighbor offering me the best deal. - Bruce( no not him) - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:36 am: === but “anyone” is all-inclusive (and not in a good way in this case).=== OK Sorry. Almost anyone. - Rudy’s teeth - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:43 am: Perhaps Darren Bailey watched too many episodes of Hee Haw and Junior Samples during his childhood. - Grandson of Man - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:49 am: “He’s got a Southern drawl, a Southern accent.” This is establishment RINO elitism that many GOP voters really do not like: contempt for the base and themselves. The former president said on Saturday that establishment RINO’s are worse than Democrats, in some instances. He may be deranged and dangerous to democracy, but on Saturday the My Pillow guy said he welcomes all to the movement, liberal and conservative. - Scurvy Dog - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:49 am: Oh yeah, Pam Page might want to read this one regarding all that money they wouldn’t have to send to Chicago anymore: https://capitolfax.com/2021/07/09/researcher-a-separate-state-made-from-downstate-would-be-by-far-the-poorest-state-in-the-country/ - Needs Deleted - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:54 am: There was a photo posted on this blog several years ago. It was a man wearing a T Shirt. The T Shirt read “I would rather drive on dirt roads than listen to anything else a Chicago Politician has to say.” That is the prevailing attitude across approximately 85 sparsely populated Illinois Counties. Until that sentiment changes, Illinois Republicans will continue to see themselves in a permanent Minority Status. - Lincoln Lad - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:56 am: Griffin thought a minority Republican candidate would have a good chance in the general. He looked right past the primary, thinking money alone would bring him home. Then he chose Irvin, thinking that would deliver the western collars. It was all a good plan - but the execution of the campaign was horrendous. That’s on Z and the candidate himself. It’s been fun to watch though… - vern - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:56 am: === The rest of the 90 percent of the land mass is not real happy about how 10 percent of the land mass is directing things === I’d be fascinated to hear Bailey’s ideas on how to shift our democracy from majority human rule to majority land rule. Are we talking a state level Electoral College? A Senate made up of one member from each county? Or would he go all the way and redraw the legislative maps for equal square mileage? His logic is obviously risible. But this rhetoric is insidious in its stupidity. He’s playing right into the election deniers’ central message, that people who live in cities don’t actually exist. It’s the only way to justify permanent minority rule in a democracy. - Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:58 am: Pam Page longs for the good ol days when downstate Republican lawmakers like Springfield’s Christian Homier, Decatur’s Webber Borchers and Charleston’s William Cox engaged in kickback schemes through their General Assembly offices. Looking forward to the “bring back the kickback” GOP messaging. - JS Mill - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 10:58 am: =90 percent of the land mass is not real happy about how 10 percent of the land mass is directing thing= For a guy who seemingly is in a one man contest of stupid, Bailey has out done himself with this little ditty. The party of toughness sure seems wimpy these days. - Vote Quimby - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 11:12 am: ==OK Sorry. Almost anyone.== All good sir. Please everyone remember there are some actual humans down here in Forgottonia - Ron Burgundy - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 11:16 am: Bailey seems to long for the days when only wealthy white male landowners could vote. -“I would rather drive on dirt roads than listen to anything else a Chicago Politician has to say.”- Chicago Politician: That can be arranged. - NoMoreMC - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 11:16 am: Funny that the article brought up the “tax-eater” angle. Over the weekend, on the way back from a concert in STL, I had a rideshare driver, who was a transplant from another southern state, bring up the subject when discussing music acts at the Illinois State Fair. I’m not sure he had ever set foot in Illinois, but still made a point to say that Chicago gobbled up all the State’s tax revenue. It’s bizarre to me that that particular talking point has spread beyond our borders. - Streator Curmudgeon - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 11:50 am: “He’s got a Southern drawl, a Southern accent. I mean, he should be running in Missouri, not in suburban Chicago.” Well, when you get your job because of your Dad’s name, maybe you forget how the rest of the state sounds. I mean, who cares if the new governor pronounces it “Al-inoy?” - very old soil - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 11:51 am: If only corn could vote. - Candy Dogood - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 11:59 am: ===He’s got a Southern drawl, a Southern accent.=== Is that really a Southern drawl? I think if we brought in a dialect expert they would tell us otherwise. Parts of Southern Illinois can certainly be included in the Mid South culturally and linguistically, but I am not sure I would include Clay County in that area. It’s similar in latitude to St. Louis and between the latitudes for Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, Ohio. I like Illinois too much to play it fast and loose with surrendering parts of our own identity to areas we don’t have much in common with. Even if a county has mostly voted with the same national candidates as Southern States has, that does not mean much. Clay County outfitted Eleven companies during the Civil War, nearly 1,500 men from Clay County fought for the union. The 1860 census put the population of Clay County at 9,366. Clay County residents should bristle at the idea of being part of the South. Though I am not really sure they would since rural Illinois communities seem to have thrown all of their history, all of their culture, all of their integrity and appeal onto a sacrificial pyre for the Party of Trump with ease and zeal. - JS Mill - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 12:02 pm: =I mean, who cares if the new governor pronounces it “Al-inoy?”= I do, but I speak English. - Lester Holt’s Mustache - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 12:44 pm: == =I mean, who cares if the new governor pronounces it “Al-inoy?”= I do, but I speak English.== Streator has a point. Our last governor couldn’t correctly pronounce any word with a “g” at the end, after all /s - TNR - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 12:48 pm: == Building an actual party? Please. Nope. == No one can attest to that more than the folks below Irvin on Grif ticket. A couple of promising careers facing a major setback. Not to mention the HGOP leadership in crisis mode. - PublicServant - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 12:51 pm: Gotta ask you non-MAGA, dare I say, sane Republicans, who find themselves out of the tent nowadays, when are you going to start the… Conservative party, or something similar? - Big Rocker - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 12:54 pm: But what about the horses? - In 630 - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 1:13 pm: Part of me wants to see what happens if a governor cuts a deal with rural legislators where there’s basically a sub-budget for counties under 100 people per square mile- all the revenue from those areas is sequestered and they have to figure out what do without subsidy from the populated areas they think they hate. - Anyone Remember - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 1:15 pm: ===Southern Illinois is the south.=== IF extended due West, the Mason-Dixon Line runs through … Springfield, Illinois. - prairiedog - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 1:31 pm: How many counties did Blago win? 6? - Nick - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 1:34 pm: The accent comment was totally unnecessary. Bailey is an unhinged wannabe theocrat and not at all fit to be governor, but yeah, let’s focus on his accent. There are a couple of different Southern and country accents you hear in Southern Illinois, and having any of them is not a disqualifier for governor. Spreading and supporting the BIG LIE, spreading covid and mass suffering, taking away people’s rights, trying to force your personal religious beliefs on everyone, and having absolutely no policy platform are disqualifiers. These are what needs to be mentioned when talking about Bailey. Not his accent. - Anyone Remember - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 1:56 pm: ===A Senate made up of one member from each county?=== Everett Dirksen proposed that. In Reynolds v. Sims, the follow up to Baker v. Carr, the US Supremes specifically said state and local districts should be based upon population, not land. But since the Supremes effectively took out a 1909 law last week … /s ?? - n-t-c - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 2:10 pm: === Clay County outfitted Eleven companies during the Civil War […] === So what? That was then; this is now. In the intervening 150-or-so years, the inhabitants have changed their minds and and their loyalties. The Republicans were once the Party of Lincoln. Today, not so much. - Sue - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 2:27 pm: Not illegal but there is no way to get around the fact that JB engineered his opponent for the general. He spent more money on the R primary to date tgen on his own campaign. - Demoralized - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 2:30 pm: ==How many counties did Blago win? 6?== What’s your point? - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 2:35 pm: ===How many counties did Blago win? 6?=== When did counties vote? People vote. That’s how it works. - Tim - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 3:14 pm: === Are we talking a state level Electoral College? === Let us not forget that The Southern wrote an editorial to this effect in November 2010, after Pat Quinn defeated Bill Brady. “…the final voting mechanism that awards the U.S. presidency would better the entire state of Illinois for statewide offices - including governor and attorney general - than the popular vote… the advantages would be felt across Illinois.” https://thesouthern.com/news/opinion/article_66ceb7f6-e7c6-11df-8841-001cc4c03286.html - Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 3:41 pm: – How many counties did Blago win? 6? – Everyone forgets that it was downstate that delivered the Democratic nomination for Blagojevich in his first run. Dem voters in places like the Quad-Cities, Peoria and the Metro-East made the difference for him in the primary. - Just Saying - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 4:21 pm: ==IF extended due West, the Mason-Dixon Line runs through … Springfield, Illinois.== Actually, it would run along Woodside Road between the majority of Springfield (except Piper Glen and fringe Lake Springfield areas) and Chatham. https://www.illinoistimes.com/springfield/drawing-the-line/Content?oid=11441214 https://www.illinoistimes.com/springfield/drawing-the-line/Content?oid=11441214 - Anyone Remember - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 5:25 pm: Just Saying - Google Maps puts it between 6th St. / I-55 / I-72 interchange and Toronto Road … which is Springfield. - Yooper in Diaspora - Monday, Jun 27, 22 @ 11:19 pm: —-Correcting - You can’t just bully the land mass. You won’t like these trees when they get angry.— Just happened to read today Ezekiel 17:24: “All the trees of the field shall know that I am the LORD.” And Psalm 92:12 “The righteous flourish like the palm tree.” Some theopsyhcology to accompany geopscyology. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.